The Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art Announce Lineup for the 41st Annual New Directors/New Films, March 21 April 1

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1 PRESS RELEASE The Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art Announce Lineup for the 41st Annual New Directors/New Films, March 21 April 1 Nadine Labaki s WHERE DO WE GO NOW? is the Opening-Night presentation with a surprise screening slated for the Closing Night slot. New York, NY, February 23, 2012 The Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art announced the full lineup today for the 41st edition of New Directors/New Films (March 21 April 1). Dedicated to the discovery of new works by emerging and dynamic filmmaking talent, the festival includes 29 feature films (24 narrative, five documentary) and 12 short films representing 28 countries. The Opening Night feature, screening on Wednesday, March 21 at MoMA, is Nadine Labaki s WHERE DO WE GO NOW?. Labaki's follow-up to the critically acclaimed CARAMEL follows the events that transpire after women of different religions in a remote Lebanese village band together and invent schemes to prevent their men from killing each other in the intractable religious conflict that surrounds their community. This entertaining and unlikely near-musical tears down stereotypes of women in the Middle East and uses humor to explore serious subjects, with one eye toward Aristophanes Lysistrata and the other toward Bollywood. The winner of audience awards at the Toronto and San Sebastian film festivals after a successful premiere in Cannes, WHERE DO WE GO NOW? is both refreshing and unflinching. The film is a Sony Pictures Classics Release. The 41st edition of New Directors/New Films will be marked by a series of firsts for the festival: The screening and celebration of Stanley Kubrick s first feature, FEAR AND DESIRE (1953) breaks precedent by presenting a film nearly 20 years older than the festival itself. THE RABBI S CAT, directed by Antoine Delesvaux and Joann Sfar is both the first 3-D feature screened at ND/NF and the first feature shown as a family film. Two programs of short films have also been added to this year s schedule and Gareth Huw Evans Indonesian martialarts thriller THE RAID will be the first late-night screening of a ND/NF selection.

2 This year a special surprise screening will be featured as the Closing Night selection. The film will not be revealed to the audience until it screens at the Film Society on Sunday, April 1. Rajendra Roy, MoMA s Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film said, While New Directors/New Films by design is about discovery, this year's films broaden the definition of a 'New Directors film' to include; a revival, a midnight movie and even a family film. And our Closing Night film adds a twist to the thrill of the unknown, as we won't reveal the name of the film until the curtain is about to go up. Rest assured, it will be one of the most talked-about films of the year, but beyond that you'll have to come ready for anything. Among the feature debuts are films by actors-turned-directors Karl Markovics and Roschdy Zem. Markovics BREATHING follows an inmate at a juvenile detention center whose last hope of parole rests on his ability to hold down a job as a morgue assistant, while Zem s thriller OMAR KILLED ME is about a Moroccan gardener wrongly accused of murder. Visual artist and musician Terence Nance s AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY is a personal meditation on love in the new millennium. The film was an audience favorite at this year s Sundance Film Festival. Additional first-time feature outings include Adam Leon s GIMME THE LOOT, a New York-fueled adventure about two ambitious graffiti artists with a plan to make their revenge-inspired mark on the city. Song Chuan s HUAN HUAN weaves an emotionally charged story about a woman whose indiscretions have a domino effect within her rural village. Similarly, Kleber Mendonça Filho s NEIGHBORING SOUNDS looks at the unexpected consequences that occur when a private security firm is hired to police a prosperous middle class neighborhood sitting next to a low-income area. Finally, Lee Kwang-Kuk puts the lessons learned from being assistant director to Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo on display with his film ROMANCE JOE which thrusts the viewer into a series of intertwined stories triggered by a bar maid telling of the time she met a suicidal guy called Romance Joe. Returning to New Directors/New Films are Mads Brügger (THE RED CHAPEL, 2010) with his film THE AMBASSADOR, in which he takes center stage as the title character in an effort to expose African political misdeeds; and Joachim Trier (REPRISE, 2007) with his (previously announced) OSLO, AUGUST 31 ST which follows a young man on what will be the most significant day of his life. Daring and experimental approaches to documentary filmmaking are highlighted by Anca Damian s (previously announced) CRULIC: THE PATH TO BEYOND which utilizes hand-drawn, cutout and collage animation techniques and Victor Ginzburg s GENERATION P, a metaphysical Mad Men from the go-go 1990s. Other documentaries include Emad Burnat s and Guy Davidi s Sundance award-

3 winner for Best Documentary Direction, 5 BROKEN CAMERAS, which chronicles the jarring events that have taken place in Palestine over the past five years and David France s HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE, which provides an immersive moving-image document chronicling the rise of AIDS activism. Commenting on this year s New Directors/New Films lineup, Film Society of Lincoln Center Program Director Richard Pena said, "This year's New Directors/New Films cohort of filmmakers seems especially promising. I can't recall an edition of the series on which I worked that had a greater variation of styles or more innovative approaches to creating deeply personal cinema." Tickets go on sale to the general public on Sunday, March 11, New Directors/New Films tickets can be purchased online at newdirectors.org, or in person at the box offices of The Film Society of Lincoln Center (Walter Reade Theater, 165 W. 65 Street, near Amsterdam Avenue) and The Museum of Modern Art (11 W. 53 Street). There are two advance ticketing opportunities: Film Society and MoMA Members may purchase tickets starting Sunday, March 4. To become a Member of the Film Society or MoMA please visit: filmlinc.com and MoMA.org, respectively. The 41st New Directors/New Films features selections include: THE AMBASSADOR (Ambassadøren) (2011) 93min Directed by Mads Brügger Country: Denmark The consummate agent-provocateur--his method fittingly described as Graham Greene meets Borat --Brügger (THE RED CHAPEL, NDNF 2010) shocks and mightily entertains by performing an artistic intervention in reality using roleplaying and hidden cameras to expose an awful truth about life in central Africa. BREATHING (Atmen) (2011) 90min Director: Karl Markovics Country: Austria The remarkably assured directorial debut from veteran Austrian actor Karl Markovics (THE COUNTERFEITERS) creates a slipstream between the perilousness of youth and the inevitability of death as it tells the story of an inmate at a juvenile detention center whose last hope of parole rests on his ability to hold down a job...as a morgue assistant. A Kino Lorber release. CRULIC: THE PATH TO BEYOND (2011) 73min Director: Anca Damian Country: Romania

4 Anca Damian s documentary utilizes hand drawn, cutout and collage animation techniques, combined with some very dark humor to create a striking documentary about a young Romanian s hunger strike in a Polish jail. DONOMA (2011) 135min Directed by Djinn Carrénard Country: France Rumored to have been shot for about $200, DONOMA announces the arrival of an intriguing new talent on the French scene, Haitian-born, Paris based Djinn Carrénard. Devised, shot (often guerrilla-style) and edited over a period of years, the film is a choral piece that chronicles the romantic destinies of three women, offering a fresh, funny portrait of an emerging French generation. FEAR AND DESIRE (1953) 72min Director: Stanley Kubrick Country: USA Directed, photographed, and edited by the talented and ambitious 24-year-old Kubrick, FEAR AND DESIRE was written by his high school classmate, Howard Sackler, who would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize in playwriting. Some Kubrick scholars see this wartime drama of five soldiers behind enemy lines and their encounter with a native woman as a dry run for PATHS OF GLORY; others see it as the original to the second half of FULL METAL JACKET. A Kino Lorber release. 5 BROKEN CAMERAS (2011) 90min Directors: Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi Countries: Palestine/Israel/France Emad Burnat s and Guy Davidi s documentary began five years ago in the Palestinian town of Bil in when Burnat bought a camera to record the birth of his son Gibreel. Gibreel s arrival, however, coincided with a period of great unrest in the area, which is witnessed by five video cameras, each subsequently damaged by bullets or rocks. A Kino Lorber release. FOUND MEMORIES (Historias Que So Existem Quando Lembradas) (2011) 98min Director: Julia Murat Country: Brazil The original title, which translates as "stories that only exist when remembered," beautifully expresses the theme and core sentiment of Julia Murat's poetic rendering of the fictive town of Jotuomba. A magical confluence of generations and cultures is occasioned by the visit of Rita, a young photographer, to this place where time has seemingly stood still and life is rooted in the fixed roles of tradition soon to be rendered obsolete. A Film Movement release.

5 GENERATION P (2011) 112min Director: Victor Ginzburg Country: Russia Ginzburg s GENERATION P could be described as a metaphysical Mad Men from the go-go 1990s - a wonderland of images and ideas that emerged from the rebirth of a nation as a marketer s paradise. The film offers a view of post- Communist Russia as the arrival of democracy and Pepsi-Cola brought the advance of capitalism with all of its mechanisms and fuzzy messages. GIMME THE LOOT (2012) 81min Director: Adam Leon Country: USA In his feature film debut, Adam Leon has created a raucous, car-less road trip that is an homage to street-smart kids and New York City. Malcolm and Sofia, two determined teens from the Bronx, are the ultimate graffiti writers. When their latest masterpiece is wiped out by a rival gang, they must hustle, steal and scheme to get spectacular revenge and become the biggest graffiti writers in the city. GOODBYE (Bé omid é didar) (2011) 104min Director: Mohammad Rasoulof. Country: Iran In his latest film, celebrated Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof creates a dramatic and tense tale set in Tehran, where a young woman is desperately attempting to acquire a visa to leave the country. The beautifully shot film uses the confinement of space to cinematically express claustrophobia, its precise framing catching every subtle expression on the face of the astonishing Leyla Zareh, who plays the disbarred human rights lawyer, Noora, looking for a way out. HEMEL (2012) 80min Director: Sacha Polak Country: The Netherlands/Spain Sacha Polak s HEMEL features Hannah Hoekstra as a strong-willed, complicated, and vulnerable heroine who longs (perhaps too much) to connect with her elusive father and ultimately find herself. The film is a powerful investigation of a sexually-empowered woman and her search for physical and intellectual intimacy. HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE (2012) 109min Director: David France Country: USA David France s immersive moving-image document chronicling the rise of AIDS activism shows a movement though the lenses of those who captured it firsthand. Desperate people leveraged the skills they had some wrote, some

6 lobbied, many marched, and all mobilized to flight a plague that vast swaths of society saw as just punishment for immoral actions. A Sundance Selects release. HUAN HUAN (2011) 90min Director: Song Chuan Country: China Song Chuan s first feature captures the dreams and desires, disappointments and regrets, of a life not fully lived via the title character. In a rural Chinese village, a young woman who is the local doctor s mistress struggles against her family, government bureaucracy and social mores to move away and create a life for herself. IT LOOKS PRETTY FROM A DISTANCE (Z daleka widok jest piekny) (2011) 77min Directors: Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal Country: Poland Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal s film is set in a Polish village effectively cut off from civilization, where rough and impassive Pawel makes a living scavenging for scrap metal. There s bad blood between him and the community (a more spiteful collection of individuals would be hard to imagine), and when he goes AWOL his neighbors loot and vandalize his home. What if he returns? A brooding, almost wordless drama vision of a world in an advanced state of entropy. LAS ACACIAS (2011) 85min Director: Pablo Giorgelli Country: Argentina One of the discoveries of the 2011 Cannes Critics Week, Pablo Giogelli s road movie with a difference takes a 900-mile trip from Asunción in Paraguay to Buenos Aires in the company of Rubén, a gruff, taciturn truck driver and the two illegal immigrants a young woman, and her new-born daughter he is reluctantly transporting. THE MINISTER (L exercice de l État) (2011) 115min Director: Pierre Schöller Country: France Pierre Schöller s political thriller focuses on a cabinet minister (Olivier Gourmet) in charge of national transportation who believes himself to be a man of the people. He wants both to be and do good, but in order to get anything done he must, given the exigencies of compromise, cajole, bend and even betray. NEIGHBORING SOUNDS (O som ao redor) (2012) 124min Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho Country: Brazil A thrilling debut from a breakout talent, Kleber Mendonça Filho s NEIGHBORING SOUNDS delves into the lives of a group of prosperous middle-class families

7 residing on a quiet street, close to a low-income neighborhood. A private security firm hired to police the street becomes the catalyst for an exploration of the neighbors discontents and anxieties, which are exacerbated by a palpable sense of unease over their society s troubled past and present inequities. NOW, FORAGER (2012) 93min Directors: Jason Cortlund and Julia Halperin Countries: USA/Poland A quiet tale about the search for integrity and the perfect mushroom, Jason Cortlund s and Julia Halperin s NOW, FORAGER follows Lucien and Regina, an urban couple living off the land foraging for fungi in upstate New York with a dream of following the seasonal emergence of exotic varieties across the country. That is, until Regina s decision to take a job in the kitchen of a hip restaurant offers a more solid opportunity, even as it betrays Lucien s off-the-grid ethos. OMAR KILLED ME (Omar m a tuer) (2011) 85min Director: Roschdy Zem Country: France Actor-turned-director Roschdy Zem s OMAR KILLED ME tells a story of racism, politics, and injustice with the clarity of a documentary and the pacing of a thriller. When a rich widow was murdered in the south of France 20 years ago, her Moroccan gardener was convicted and jailed with no evidence; it took a committed journalist to try to unravel the rush to judgment that laid bare the racism that was hidden in the French justice system. OSLO, AUGUST 31ST (2011) 96min Director: Joachim Trier Country: Norway Daylight lingers at the end of August in Oslo, but sunlight is not a friend to Anders, a semi-recovered addict, facing a new life, which may not be appealing without former habits. Adapted from the same novel as Louis Malle's THE FIRE WITHIN (1963), Joachim Trier s OSLO, AUGUST 31 ST follows Anders as he tries to adjust - making love, wandering through Oslo, having a job interview, seeing old friends, and trying to get comfortable with his situation. A Strand Releasing Film. AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY (2011) 90min Directed by Terence Nance Country: USA Frank, funny, and bracingly contemporary, visual artist Terence Nance gleefully bends the cinematic rules for his personal meditation on love in the new millennium with his film, AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF BEAUTY. Passages of live action sequences and direct-to-camera interviews are accented with a wide variety of animation styles as Nance analyzes his amorous history as well as his current circumstances.

8 PORFIRIO (2011) 106min Director: Alejandro Landes Country: Colombia Paralyzed from the waist down by a stray police bullet, the title character in Alejandro Landes' remarkable film spends his days selling minutes on his cell phone when not flirting with his comely neighbor, and secretly plotting his revenge. Landes worked on the film for five years, creating a tale that joined the most intimate details of Porfirio's day-to-day life with an astonishing re-creation of his attempt to hijack an airplane. THE RABBI S CAT (Le chat du rabbin) (2011) 89min Director: Antoine Delesvaux Countries: France/Austria Adapted from the graphic novels by Joanne Sfar, THE RABBI S CAT is a vivid, lively, and imaginative animated film co-directed by Sfar and Antoine Delesvaux. Set in 1920 s Algiers, a widower rabbi lives with his voluptuous and dutiful daughter and their pesky cat who swallows a parakeet and begins to speak, driving everyone crazy and moving the plot ahead by insisting on having a barmitzvah. THE RAID (2011) 100min Director: Gareth Huw Evans Countries: Indonesia/USA In Gareth Huw Evans sensational thriller, THE RAID, a police SWAT team storms a housing project ruled by gangsters and inhabited by machete-wielding lowlifes but the mission has been leaked, the tables are turned, and a dwindling band of elite fighters find themselves massively outnumbered in a lethal game of cat and mouse. What ensues is a relentless and savage succession of closequarters shoot-outs and punishing martial-arts combat sequences, each jawdropping smackdown unbelievably topping the previous one. This film is wild! A Sony Pictures Classics release. ROMANCE JOE (Ro-maen-seu Jo ) (2011) 115min Director: Lee Kwang-Kuk Country: South Korea In his playful first feature, Lee Kwang-Kuk expertly weaves several narrative strands into an elegant web and a meditation on storytelling. A teasing and pleasing portrait of a filmmaker in search of a story to tell, ROMANCE JOE begins as a young, self-possessed barmaid in a remote inn recalls the time she met the title character. TEDDY BEAR (2012) 92min Director: Mads Matthiesen Country: Denmark

9 Mads Matthiesen's character-based and understated comedy, TEDDY BEAR tells the story of a gentle giant of a body builder who self sculpts his muscles by day and lives quietly at home with his mom at night. But at 38, he really wants a proper girlfriend, and despite his mother's resistance (she is a master of emotional manipulation) and his own profound awkwardness, he draws up the courage to find one--even if he has to leave Denmark to do so. TWILIGHT PORTRAIT (2011) 105min Director: Angelina Nikonova Country: Russia TWILIGHT PORTRAIT is a powerhouse collaboration co-written and coproduced by Angelina Nikonova, who directed, and Olga Dihovichnaya, who stars in this very dark, provocative and constantly surprising debut feature film. In a modern Russian city where corruption, apathy and class warfare are the norm, a woman is raped, rather casually, by the police. What follows explodes the conventions of sexual politics and will certainly have filmgoers talking. WHERE DO WE GO NOW? (2010) 100min Director: Nadine Labaki Countries: France/Lebanon/Italy/Egypt Labaki s film focuses on a group of women of different religions in a remote Lebanese village that band together and invent schemes to prevent their men from killing each other in the intractable religious conflict that surrounds their community. This entertaining and unlikely near-musical tears down stereotypes of women in the Middle East and uses humor to explore serious subjects, with one eye toward Aristophanes Lysistrata and the other toward Bollywood. A Sony Pictures Classics Release. The 41st New Directors/New Films shorts selections include: PROGRAM 1 (In alphabetical order) 84min CHICA XX MUJER (2011) 12min Director: Isabell Šuba Countries: Germany/France In a country with the highest percentage of cosmetic surgery and beauty queens per capita, a Venezualian girl prepares to be celebrated like a princess on her quinceañera. THE CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT (Les enfants de la nuit) (2011) 26min Director: Caroline Deruas Country: France Girl meets boy, the oldest story in the book: but it s France in 1944, and he s German.

10 GIONGO (2011) 8min Director: Colin Elliott Country: France What did Shakespeare know of love? How many words are there in Japanese for rain? Can anyone really dance the Mashed Potato? MEANING OF ROBOTS (2011) 4min Director: Matt Lenski Country: USA I ve been working on this robot movie and over the years it developed into a sex movie. Seriously. THE ROOM (Soba) (2011) 5min Director: Ivana Jurić Country: Croatia Stop motion animation explores sensuality and sex through the eyes of a doll. STREET VENDOR CINEMA (Cine camelô) (2011) 16min Director: Clarissa Knoll Country: Brazil When a filmmaker and his team set up a shop that makes and sells short films on demand, wild fantasies come to life in the middle of a bustling marketplace. SUMMIT (2011) 13min Director: Medeni Griffiths Countries: UK/USA A chance encounter on a mountain road can lead to friendship and understanding or mistrust and betrayal. PROGRAM 2 (In alphabetical order) 96min THE END (2011) 16min Director: Didier Barcelo Country: France A respected actress work gets refurbished. OH SORROW (Ay pena) (2011) 20min Director: Elisa Cepedal Country: Spain When you lose your last connection to the place you once called home, what s to keep you there? THE PLAIN (A chjána) (2011) 21min Director: Jonas Carpignano

11 Countries: Italy/USA Based on real events in Italy, an African immigrant discovers an unexpected cost to his activism. REVOLUTION REYKJAVIK (2011) 20min Director: Isold Uggadottir Country: Iceland As Iceland sinks into economic meltdown, 58-year-old Gudfinna tries, against all odds, not to do the same. ROLLING ON THE FLOOR LAUGHING (2011) 19min Director: Russell Harbaugh Country: USA Two sons become over-protective with their mother at a dinner to celebrate her birthday. About New Directors/New Films Dedicated to the discovery and support of emerging artists, New Directors/New Films has earned an international reputation as the premier festival for works that break or re-cast the cinematic mold. The New Directors/New Films selection committee is made up of members from both presenting organizations: from The Film Society of Lincoln Center, Marian Masone, Richard Peña, and Gavin Smith; and from The Museum of Modern Art, Jytte Jensen, Laurence Kardish, and Rajendra Roy. About The Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art Under the leadership of Rose Kuo, Executive Director, and Richard Peña, Program Director, The Film Society of Lincoln Center offers the best in international, classic, and cutting-edge independent cinema. The Film Society presents two film festivals that attract global attention: the New York Film Festival, now in its 50th year, and New Directors/New Films, which, since its founding in 1972, has been produced in collaboration with MoMA. The Film Society also publishes the award-winning Film Comment Magazine, and for over three decades has given an annual award now named The Chaplin Award to a major figure in world cinema. Past recipients of this award include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, and Tom Hanks. For more information, visit The Museum of Modern Art s Department of Film was established as the Film Library in 1935, and presented its first series as circulating exhibitions in The Film Department organizes over 50 film exhibitions every year, including annual programs such as Premiere Brazil, To Save and Project and The Contenders. The Department also organizes exhibitions in MoMA s galleries, including Tim Burton ( ) and Pixar: 20 Years of Animation ( ). The department also has an extensive archive of over 27,000 film and video works, including the world s largest institutional collections of the works of D. W. Griffith, Andy Warhol, and Stan Brakhage. Rajendra Roy is the current Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film, appointed in May Sponsorship New Directors/New Films is presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art and is supported by Kenneth Kuchin, The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art, the New Wave Young Patrons of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, The New York Times, American Airlines, Stella Artois, Dream NYC, and 42BELOW.

12 Media sponsorship provided by New York magazine. MEDIA CONTACTS: Film Society of Lincoln Center John Wildman, 212/ David Ninh, 212/ The Museum of Modern Art Sarah Jarvis, 212/ ONLINE PRESS OFFICE: Press materials including high-res images and press releases are available for download at: (Password: press2) and MoMA.org/press.